Liberal Democrats fight plans to curb Freedom of Information

3.00.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 26th Jun 2007

The Constitutional Affairs Committee has published its report on the Freedom of Information Act, which criticises a government plan to make it easier for public bodies to turn down requests for information on the grounds that they are too expensive to answer. Members of the Select Committee are calling on the government to abandon its "unnecessary, unpopular and undesirable" reforms of the Freedom of Information Act.

Liberal Democrat President said "This report makes clear that David Maclean's attempt to change the rules and exclude Parliament from Freedom of Information requests was quite wrong, badly thought through and completely unjustified. The committee also confirms that major decisions on the rights of the citizen should not be taken without full facts and a persuasive conclusion."